The Mirror (1997 film)

The Mirror
The Mirror
Directed by	Jafar Panahi
Starring	Mina Mohammad Khani
Cinematography	Farzad Jadat
Release date	1997;
Running time	95 min.
Country	Iran
Language	Persian

The Mirror (Persian: آینه Ayneh) is a 1997 Iranian film directed by Jafar Panahi, about a little girl trying to find her way home from school.

Plot

Mina, a first-grader, finds her mother has failed to pick her up from school. The movie is about her endeavor to find her way home amidst the noise, confusion and chaos of Tehran. Mina is dressed in school uniform (with a head scarf), has one arm in a cast and is holding a school bag in the other. She meets a lot of people on her way and most of them try to help her while others are surprisingly apathetic to her situation. Eventually, the movie takes a turn when the girl looks into the camera for the first time, breaking the fourth wall, and someone shouts from off-screen, "Mina, don't look into the camera!" The movie is a real-life capture of events thereon (or that is how it seems). Mina announces that she doesn't want to act in the movie any more and wants to go home. In the end she goes home after returning the microphone.

Meaning

In a 2006 interview, Panahi said that the film was meant to show how "reality and the imagination are intertwined, they are very similar". Also he mentioned about how the film is staged in a way which normally nobody would suspect was drama but would instead believe was real.^[1]

Cast

Mina Mohammad Khani — Mina
Kazem Mojdehi
Naser Omuni
M. Shirzad
T. Samadpour

Reception

Critical response

The Mirror has an approval rating of 100% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 7 reviews, and an average rating of 8/10.^[2]

Accolades

Award	Category	Winner/Nominee	Result
Locarno International Film Festival	Golden Leopard	Jafar Panahi	Won
Istanbul International Film Festival	Golden Tulip	Jafar Panahi	Won
Singapore International Film Festival	Silver Screen Award (Best Asian Director)	Jafar Panahi	Won
Valladolid International Film Festival	Golden Spike	Jafar Panahi	Nominated

References

^ Wilson, Jake (26 September 2006). "A mirror under the veil - and inside the stadium". The Age. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
^ "The Mirror - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.

External links

The Mirror at IMDb

This article related to an Iranian film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] Wilson, Jake (26 September 2006). "A mirror under the veil - and inside the stadium". The Age. Retrieved 21 July 2013.

[2] "The Mirror - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.

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v t e Golden Leopard winning films
1946–1975	And Then There Were None (1946) Man About Town (1947) Germany, Year Zero (1948) The Farm of Seven Sins (1949) When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950) Hunted (1952) Julius Caesar (1953) The Composer Glinka (1953) The Glass Wall (1953) Prince Bayaya (1954) Gate of Hell (1954) Wild Fruit (1954) Rotation (1954) The Sheep Has Five Legs (1954) Carmen Jones (1955) The Emperor's Nightingale (1955) Il Grido (1957) Ten North Frederick (1958) Killer's Kiss (1959) Il bell'Antonio (1960) Fires on the Plain (1961) The Winner (1962) Transport from Paradise (1963) Black Peter (1964) Four in the Morning (1965) Courage for Every Day (1966) Entranced Earth (1967) The Visionaries (1968) Charles, Dead or Alive (1969) Those Who Wear Glasses (1969) Three Sad Tigers (1969) No Path Through Fire (1969) Lilika (1970) Mujo (1970) Soleil O (1970) End of the Road (1970) On the Point of Death (1971) They Have Changed Their Face (1971) The Friends (1971) Private Road (1971) Znaki na drodze (1971) Bleak Moments (1972) The Illumination (1973) Tűzoltó utca 25. (1974) The Son of Amir Is Dead (1975)
1976–2000	The Big Night (1976) Antonio Gramsci: The Days of Prison (1977) The Idlers of the Fertile Valley (1978) The Herd (1979) To Love the Damned (1980) Chakra (1981) The Princess (1983) Stranger Than Paradise (1984) Alpine Fire (1985) Jezioro Bodeńskie (1986) O Bobo (1987) Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) Schmetterlinge (1988) Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989) Accidental Waltz (1990) Johnny Suede (1991) Autumn Moon (1992) The Place on a Grey Tricorne (1993) Khomreh (1994) Raï (1995) Nénette et Boni (1996) The Mirror (1997) Mr. Zhao (1998) Skin of Man, Heart of Beast (1999) Father (2000)
2001–present	Off to the Revolution by a 2CV (2001) The Longing (2002) Khamosh Pani (2003) Private (2004) Nine Lives (2005) Das Fräulein (2006) The Rebirth (2007) Parque via (2008) She, a Chinese (2009) Winter Vacation (2010) Back to Stay (2011) The Girl from Nowhere (2012) Story of My Death (2013) From What Is Before (2014) Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) Godless (2016) Mrs. Fang (2017) A Land Imagined (2018) Vitalina Varela (2019) Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (2021) Regra 34 (2022) Critical Zone (2023) Toxic (2024)